Moderating effect of teacher efficacy on the relationship between students perception of mathematics and students mathematics achievement

This study examined the moderating effect of teacher efficacy on the relationship between students’ perception of mathematics and students’ mathematics achievement. A descriptive survey design, which is anchored on the quantitative research approach, was utilized in the study, with a sample of 300 form 1 and form 2 senior high school students from Bolgatanga Senior High School and Zamse Senior High Technical School in Ghana. Prior to the main model's estimation, preliminary analyses were conducted, such as internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analysis. Amos was used to perform Structural Equation Modelling in order to test the various hypotheses. The results showed that students’ perception of mathematics and teacher efficacy all had a positive effect on students’ mathematics achievement and were all statistically significant. Furthermore, teacher efficacy had a positive effect and was statistically significant as well on students’ perception of mathematics. Moreover, teacher efficacy moderated the relationship between students’ perception of mathematics and students’ mathematics achievement. Thus, this study provided evidence in favor of all the four hypotheses.